Rain
by shini515
Summary: Every one in this world is just a picture of a rose to Kurama, when he lost his one true rose after the death of Shiori, can he find unexpected comfort in another? HXK


**Rain**

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Chapter One

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_**Distant thunder beat the sky like an angry drum. Lightning crashed through the ominous darkness, briefly lighting up the empty street except for a lone figure.**_

_**The person willed his exhausted body as fast as he can, the rain beating mercilessly down on the sodden figure. He rounded a corner abruptly and stared up at a single house at the end of the little neighborhood.**_

_**The windows are dark.**_

_**The front door swung open with a bang, unlocked, and he scanned the room with a predatory scrutiny, finding no ki, he rushed inside.**_

_**And froze.**_

_**Another crash of lightning filled up the room with a piercing light.**_

_**The floor is smeared with blood.**_

_**A single, broken figure crumbled in a corner, blood pooling out from the bullet hole in her stomach.**_

_**A split second later, it was dark again.**_

_**The merciless roar of the storm raved on, drowning out a single whisper from the frozen lips.**_

_**"..Kaasan"**_

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****

"Minamino Shuiichi please report to the guidance office immediately."

All eyes in the class room turned to the single figure by the window. The redhead calmly stood up, ignoring the eyes burning through his back. Seeing the teacher nod her permission, he exited the room without a word.

_Rumors of murder spreads like an epidemic disease in this place_, his lips thinned in dismal.

**_Someone called the police and ambulance...the whole night was a blur of motion and shouts. Though, he was mostly unaware of the panic around him. All he could recall was holding her hand, calling her name again and again...just to keep those half lidded brown eyes open...for just one more second... for him._**

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"Shuiichi-san, we're very sorry about your loss, and if you feel up to talk about it, we can help you to try coping with your grief..."

Kurama tugged absently at his crimson ear tail, he is more than annoyed right now. Some _irrelevant human's pity_, he scoffed almost cynically, just what I need right now...

An ancient pain flashed through his emerald orbs, the reality sinking like a stone in his stomach.

_She's dead...There's nothing binding me to this world anymore, nothing except memories..._

_Am I just going to reclaim my old thievery life again? I?_

_**"I...love you...I'll love you no matter...who you are...you'll always be..my dearest....remember that...Kurama."**_

Her last words drummed in his ears.

_**"I'll love you no matter who you are..."**_

The counselor's voice seems to fade and fuzz into the back ground, like an old radio's static...

_**"No matter who you are.."**_

Her words echoed again and again like thunder.

_**"..Kurama"**_

_She knew...she knew all along_

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_**With great effort,, she turned up the corner of her mouth into a pained smile, her hand, so pale against his, trembling, slowly reached up, trying to trace alone that loving face once more,**_

_**The hand fell before she ever got the chance.**_

_**She never felt the single drop of tear fall on her closed eyelids.**_

_**It hasn't stopped raining since that day.**_

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****

"Shuiichi-san? Shuiichi-san! Have you been listening?"

The agitated voice broke through his foggy mind.

He blinked, for a second unsure of where he is.

The woman's face hovered in front of him, her eyes seem annoyingly large.

_Oh._

"You are dozing off a lot lately, if you just stop bottling all your problems inside of..."

She's brusquely cut off by the screech of the redhead pushing out of his seat, he stormed to the door without a second word, pulled it open with a jerk and left, leaving the woman still shouting protests in the conference.

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He didn't go back to class, the thing is pointless anyway. It use to be his cover of being part of the human world, but now....?

He shook his head sharply to himself; drops of rain flew off his scarlet tresses, making some stick to his cheek.

Aimlessly, the redhead wondered the streets, a lonesome blending in bustling crowd that rushed past him like waves.

_Funny,_ he mused at how humans rush through their short, ephemeral life, like a fleeting dream. Everything is just a fast forwarded tape to them.

_Stumbling through life_, he thought.

But somehow , in such little time, they form bonds of friendship and love so strong...Demons live through every moment of their life calculating, evaluating power and the rules of survival...so many chances, yet they never treasured their feelings...

It makes them _weak_.

A bitter chuckle emitted from his lips_, it's all over now anyway. Everyone in this world is just a picture of rose. Some of them might look just as beautiful as a real one, but they can never have the rich sweet scent and the softness of the delicate pedels..._

And he hasn't been able to protect his only real rose.

The rain grew heavier, making dents and splashes on the road. Kurama brushed back soaked bands from his eyes and looked up at the heavens.

_It hasn't stopped raining since the day she died._ He mused at the irony of it. The childhood story that his mother told him surfaced in his mind.

_**The rain is the sacred tears of the goddesses in the heavens...**_

_I wonder who they wept for...? Mankind?_

Falling back, Kurama felt a sharp prick of pain on his sides-He has somehow stumbled into a park's rose bushes. The crimson flowers seem to drip with the redness of blood in the rain, the thorn tips on the stem stained with scarlet.

His blood.

The pain of small wounds where the throns punctuated his entire body ached, but the redhead didn't' seem to mind as he wondered his eyes through the endless sky.

_It's funny, maikai and ningenkai is two totally different worlds, yet they share the same sky..._

_So bottomless, so wide, like her eyes..._

Spreading his limbs around him, Kurama listened to the soft whispers of the rain against his face, and willed himself to drown in the stormy, gray sky.

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The same position was how Hiei found him in the rose garden hours later.

The kitsune is laying motionless spread eagle among the flowers, his blood like hair fanned out around the pale face, melting together with the crimson pedals around him. The only streak of color that stood out from the blinding red are the pair of emerald orbs staring motionlessly at the sky.

The little fire demon found his breath caught for a split second at the haunting beauty of the scene below the tree he perched on. Shaking his head roughly, he hopped down from the branch next to his partner.

No response greeted him.

Hiei frowned, seeing little gashes all over the redhead's body, although the rain has constantly washed off the blood from the wounds, they are oozing crimson blood out continuously.

He kneeled above the other's face, partially blocking out his view.

"What are you doing?"

"Falling into the sky..."

He almost didn't catch that. Snorting quietly, the little youkai gently propped a hand behind Kurama's back, pulling him up.

"Baka kitsune."

The otherboy leaned against his chest sluggishly, Hiei try not to flinch at the intimate contact.

"You have to get out of the rain, no one's immune to fever."

The other boy seem to ignore him, then softly,

"Protect Yukina, don't fail like I did."

Hiei unconsciously feel his hand rest upon the other's shoulder,

"You didn't fail, Kurama, you couldn't have possibly feel that youkai all the way in makai."

"But I could of been-"

"No could ofs," he harshly cut the redhead off, then more gently, "No one walk through life with no quilts and regrets, the person that did would only be a heartless bastard."

For the first time, dull green orbs blinked at his direction, then lowered,

"Speaking on personal experiences there?'

"Hn."

The redhead shivered against his chest, looking down, Hiei noted that the once rosy lips are tainting a slightly unhealthy blue. Without a word, he swept the boy off his feet, ignoring his week protests and hopped up to a tree, shielding both of them from the rain.

Pulling something bulgy from under his cloak, he hand it to the surprised kitsune.

"Hiei...where did you get this?!"

"Hn, picked it up from the streets..stop staring at it, aren't you suppose to open it and put it over your head or something."

His irritated response only resulted in a genuine little chuckle from the bundle of red tresses buried into his cloak.

"Baka..."

The fox demon opened the umbrella and shielding it over their head, while Hiei carried him in his arms and flitted tree to tree, careful to make his movements steady for the redhead in his arms to be more comfortable.

"What are her last words to you?"

Emerald orbs widened at the sudden question from the usually austere little youkai.

"She told me she loved me, that she'll love me no matter who I am."

His smile turned a little reminiscing at the memory.

"Typical her...spending that last seconds of her life telling me something that I already know all the time..."

He almost miss the little flicker of envy in the ruby orbs.

"So...where are we going?"

"Home."

The corner of his turned up.

The rain beating on the umbrella abated, but he still held it over them anyway.

On the horizon, the fist streak of rainbow in several days appeared as the sky finally cleared into a glistering azule.

_Maybe there's a beautiful rose beside me all this time...._

The End...for now

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a/n: This is just kind of a sudden inspiration, anyway this thing would just be collections of sweet little stories of love and friendship between the reikai tentais, mainly between Hiei and Kurama. So please support my first YYH fic by reviewing


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